If you have wondered about the sense of Internet registrar GoDaddy's $2.5 million Super Bowl commercials, Internet analysis firm Netcraft has an answer. While the impact of this year's is not know yet, last year's campaign played a key role in driving GoDaddy to become the world's largest web hosting firm, Netcraft said.

In January, GoDaddy hosted a total of 5,544,296 hostnames, which is about 95,000 more than the hosting base of Germany-based 1&1, which held the title of the world's largest web host until January 2006. Many of those domain names simply represent sales of domain names - products that generate revenue once a year. But domains are key to sell its customers future services such as website hosting.

The 2005 Super Bowl ads are considered by Netcraft to have been an important driver in GoDaddy's growth. In the 12 months since the Super Bowl commercial, Go Daddy has added 523,825 active sites, a growth rate of 136 percent compared to the year before. The simple fact that GoDaddy caused some controversy in the Super Bowl advertising scene provided the firm with some "free" public exposure. Netcraft quoted broadcast monitoring firm MultiVision, which estimated that the Super Bowl controversy supplied Go Daddy with the equivalent of $11.7 million in free publicity.